Will Read For Women & Marc Cugini: VA & DC 4/14 & 4/15

Unlimited thanks to Siwar and Marc for plugging me into these two great events. Looking forward to hearing Sarah Browning, Kateema Lee, and Meg Ronan in VA and Eugene Cross, Carrie Murphy, and Gina Abelkop in DC.

A lot of people have described my work as very ‘masculine’ but to read for a feminist journal you got to be a feminist right? So hopefully this means a ‘masculine’ poetics can still be feminist. I don’t know. Nobody throw trash at me.

Hear great poetry from exciting DC writers and help women in your community–come to Will Read for Women, George Mason’s first poetry reading/pantry drive!

On Saturday, April 14th, So to Speak, a feminist literary journal, will host a reading drive to benefit a local domestic violence shelter. The reading will feature poetry by Sarah Browning, Joe Hall, Kateema Lee, and Meg Ronan, with an open mic to follow. Audience members are asked to bring toiletry items and other pantry necessities to donate to the shelter, Bethany House. The list of suggested items follows.

The Johnson Center Bistro is a cafe on the first floor of the student center at George Mason’s Fairfax campus. Parking is available nearby in the Mason Pond, Shenandoah, and Rappahannock parking decks. We’d appreciate your support in reaching out into the community and getting this event off the ground! Contact us at sotospeakjournal@gmail.com with any questions.

Reader bios:
Sarah Browning is director of Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden and co-editor of D.C. Poets Against the War, she is an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, poetry co-editor of On the Issues Magazine, and co-host of Sunday Kind of Love, a monthly poetry series at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC. She has received fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities and the Creative Communities Initiative and is winner of the People Before Profits Poetry Prize.

Joe Hall was born in the woods and is devoted to Cheryl. Black Ocean Press published his first book of poems, Pigafetta Is My Wife, in 2010. With Chad Hardy he wrote The Container Store Vol. I (SpringGun 2012). His poems, fiction, book reviews, and essays have appeared in Gulf Coast, Octopus, HTMLGiant, The Colorado Review and elsewhere.

Kateema Lee is a Washington D. C. native. She is a University of Maryland graduate, a Cave Canem Fellow, and an associate editor for the Potomac Review. She’s also an English instructor, and she teaches women’s studies courses for the Montgomery College Women’s Studies Program. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in print and online journals such as Poet Lore, Word Riot, Pirene’s Fountain, So to Speak: A Feminist Literary Journal, and others.

Meg Ronan’s poems can be found in West Wind Review, SpringGun, Shampoo Poetry, Cricket Online Review, Interim, LEVELER and other lovely journals. She teaches, sells things, and gives tarot readings in & around the DC metro area.

EUGENE CROSS (www.eugenecross.com) is the author of the short story collection “Fires of Our Choosing.” He was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania and received an MFA from The University of Pittsburgh. His stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine (which named him one of “20 Best New Writers”), American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly,TriQuarterly, and Callaloo, among others. His work was also listed among the 2010 Best American Short Stories’ 100 Distinguished Stories. He currently lives in Chicago where he teaches in the Fiction Department at Columbia College Chicago.

CARRIE MURPHY (www.carrie-murphy.com) received her BA from the University of Maryland and her MFA from New Mexico State University. She is the author of PRETTY TILT (Keyhole Books, 2012) and a chapbook, MEET THE LAVENDERS (Birds of Lace, 2011).

JOE HALL was born in the woods and is devoted to Cheryl. Black Ocean Press published his first book of poems, Pigafetta Is My Wife, in 2010. With Chad Hardy he wrote The Container Store Vol. I (SpringGun 2012). His poems, fiction, book reviews, and essays have appeared in Gulf Coast, Octopus, HTMLGiant, The Colorado Review, and elsewhere.

GINA ABELKOP is a Pisces living in Northern California. She is the founder/editor of the feminist press Birds of Lace and her wayward books of poems, Darling Beastlettes, is out now from Apostrophe Books. You can also read her in Encyclopedia Vol. II: F-K, Two Serious Ladies, Octopus, and Action, Yes, or visit her online at themoonstop.blogspot.com.

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About the Author

Joe Hall is a writer, educator, and deprofessionalized academic. Black Ocean Press published his most recent book, Someone's Utopia, in 2018. His second book, The Container Store Vols. I & II (SpringGun Press 2012) was written with Chad Hardy. He has published journal articles working the intersections of poetics, empire, and the commons.